Family history of prostate cancer should include second- and third-degree relatives

the ONA take:

According to a new study published in the journal The Prostate, researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, have found that looking at a man's second- and third-degree relatives may be as significant as looking at his first-degree relatives to determine his risk for developing prostate cancer.

Typically, a physician will ask a patient about family members with prostate cancer, and that patient may indicate whether it is a first-degree relative, but researchers wanted to know if second- and third-degree relatives were equally as important to estimate prostate cancer risk for men based on prostate cancer family history. The researchers analyzed data from the Utah Population Database to estimate cancer risk for more than 7.3 million people based on family history.

Results showed that 10% of patients had three times the risk and 26% had two times the risk compared with men with no first-, second-, or third-degree relatives with prostate cancer.

The researchers plan to further investigate the effect of having both a maternal and paternal family history of prostate cancer, as well as other factors, to better calculate cancer risk.

The team is also investigating family history risk assessments for breast and lung cancers. Knowing a patient's family history, and therefore risk for developing cancer, will better determine which patients should receive further screening.

A man's second- and third-degree relatives may be as significant as looking at his first-degree relatives to determine his risk for developing prostate cancer.

A discovery by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah shows that looking at whether a man's uncles and great-grandparents, among other second- and third-degree relatives, had prostate cancer could be as important as looking at whether his father had prostate cancer.